2.04 Quiz: Voices of an Emerging Nation

Read the sentence from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. This being acquired and established, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improved in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtained rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave Silence the second place. Which saying from Poor Richard's Almanac conveys a similar message?

"A slip of the foot you may soon recover: But a slip of the tongue you may never get over."

In Common Sense, Paine asserts that Great Britain has ignored American efforts to coexist fairly and peacefully, so Americans have no choice but to fight for independence. What reasoning does Paine use to support this point?

"Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resource, decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge...."

Which detail from The American Crisis develops the key idea that the failure to face challenges as they arise places the success of future generations at risk?

"The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy."

Read the excerpt from Common Sense. Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. How does Paine's style contribute to the persuasiveness of the text?

He uses questions to highlight several ways Great Britain abuses Americans to persuade readers of the urgency to resist.

Read the sentence from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. He [my brother] was taken up, censured, and imprisoned for a month,... because he would not discover his author. I too was taken up and examined before the council; but, though I did not give them any satisfaction, they contented themselves with admonishing me, and dismissed me, considering me, perhaps, as an apprentice, who was bound to keep his master's secrets. What does the use of the word admonishing suggest? Select the two correct answers.

The council scolds Franklin. The council disapproves of Franklin's actions.